Dr. Stephen S. Wise of New York, president of the American Jewish Congress, today defended the forthcoming World Jewish Congress in an address to more than 250 delegates summoned to elect sixteen British representatives to the Geneva congress.
“We are neither fearful nor ashamed,” he declared. “The world should know what it has done to the Jew and against the Jews and what they are suffering.
“This does not mean,” he added, “that the World Jewish Congress will become a wailing wall, but a tribunal before which the facts of Jewish life will be registered in the sight and hearing of men.”
Attacking the opponents of the congress, Rabbi Wise declared that the parley was an expression of the will of the Jews in many lands. It will meet in Geneva on August 8 and aims to set up a system of collective security for Jews throughout the world.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, British Jews’ representative body, which has gone on record against convocation of the world congress, did not participate in today’s conference.
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